Black Kite’s ‘Collingwood Canopy’ mural to be celebrated July 13

EDITOR’S NOTE:The date of the unveiling has been changed from July 6 to July 13 due to a death in the community.

Ever since Black Kite Coffee on Collingwood Boulevard opened in July 2012, owner Kristin Kiser said its southern wall “screamed” for public art. The need for a mural was even written into the building’s rental contract, she said.

Thanks to the efforts of Art Corner Toledo (ACT) and several other partnering organizations, artist Matt Taylor — who also painted the “Toledo Loves Love” mural organized by ACT — painted the side of Kiser’s building into a tribute to the Old West End neighborhood.

Rachel Richardson of Art Corner Toledo, artist Matt Taylor and Black Kite Coffee owner Kristen Kiser at the “Collingwood Canopy” mural on the side of Black Kite Coffee in the Old West End. Toledo Free Press Photo by Kim Sanchez

“My husband (Andrew Newby) and I have a handful of passions and one of them is public art,” Kiser said. “This [mural] makes a huge impact on the neighborhood. And the fact that the artist designed the entire thing to be based on the Old West End, that’s significant for the whole city.”

The mural, “Collingwood Canopy,” which is 32 feet wide and 55 feet tall, pays tribute to the Old West End neighborhood, including a shoutout to Robert Brundage, a neighborhood activist who was killed by an attacker while riding his bike through the neighborhood. One panel of the mural features Honey Locusts trees, which once lined Collingwood Boulevard before they were cut down by the city. Another panel shows a Victorian house and wrought iron gate.

The community is invited to attend an official unveiling ceremony from 3-5 p.m. July 13 at Black Kite Coffee, 2499 Collingwood Blvd.

“I wasn’t a close friend to Dr. Brundage, but I did remember him riding around and being active in the community,” said Taylor, who goes by Mr. Taylor. “[ACT founder] Rachel [Richardson] had given me some clues on what she’d like to include and why they related to Dr. Brundage. But it was a call to the neighborhood itself and that street of Collingwood. Scott High School was referenced. You can see the bell at the very top. I almost feel like I want to make a guide book or an image at the end to show what is in there. I will probably get around to that.”

Kiser said she knew she wanted art on that wall of the building when Richardson came to her and said, “Let’s do it.” ACT is a nonprofit organization that coordinates public art projects.

“I’m totally moved by it,” Richardson said. “It’s a very special thing when a mural is complete, and it’s a very powerful thing. I consider these [murals] to be my kids.”

Richardson pulled in the Old West End Association, which donated $750, and Toledo.com, which organized a Crowdtilt fundraiser, raising about $1,500. She also gathered support from The Home Depot, Sunbelt Rentals, Art Supply Depo and individual donors.

Toledo City Councilwoman Lindsay Webb gave her personal support with a private donation, Richardson said.

In total, the project raised $4,000, she said.

“I’m happy with it and happy to support anything that brings positivity to the neighborhood,” said Amanda Lyons, Old West End Association president.

John Eikost, Toledo.com editor and board member of The Arts Commission, wasn’t surprised that Toledo residents responded fast and hard to the Crowdtilt campaign, a form of online fundraising.

“I feel like the creative community in Toledo is stronger than it’s ever been,” he said. “You know there so much talk of blight and Rust Belt decay and I felt confident that Toledo would step up and support this type of artistic expression.”

The trees displayed in the mural refer to the Honey Locust trees that lined both sides of Collingwood. The city removed dozens of the trees between Islington and Monroe streets last year. The city said the trees had to come down because their root system would have been destroyed by a water project the city was conducting as part of a revamp of the street.

The city has promised to replant 89 trees within a year of the project’s completion. The street is currently under construction. Critics have said it will take decades for those trees to grow enough to have full canopies over the street.

Meanwhile, Old West End residents and Toledoans across the city will be able to appreciate the trees by the new mural, Richardson said.

Murals, public art used to revitalize neighborhoods

Vacant lots strewn with trash, abandoned buildings littering the city, boarded-up windows — it’s no secret that neighborhood blight is a problem in Toledo. “Revitalizing neighborhoods” even became a campaign issue in the November election.

From left, Toledo City Council member Lindsay Webb, artist Ahmad Jacobs and Rachel Richardson of Art Corner Toledo with a mural at Junction and Belmont streets in Toledo. Toledo Free Press Photo by Andrew Weber

One such abandoned building sits at the corner of 18th Street and Madison Avenue in the UpTown neighborhood. The Arts Commission, Art Corner Toledo (ACT), Home Depot, the UpTown Green planning committee and volunteers from United Way of Greater Toledo are all working together to place murals over its boarded-up windows.

The artwork is expected to do for UpTown what murals have done for other parts of the city. Murals have revived dilapidated landscapes, increased a sense of ownership and transformed a neighborhood plagued by vandalism and prostitution to one that kindles respect and pride. Murals have revitalized Toledo’s neighborhoods, supporters say, and more are planned.

“[Murals] have a huge, huge impact on the way people interact with the city and engage with the city,” said Ryan Bunch of the Arts Commission. “They’re more aesthetically appealing … they create meaning. … Some of Downtown is a little rough-looking at times and it creates this feeling that ‘I’m not alone here — there’s some life and activity here.’”

“Murals and public art have been proven to create destinations for people to visit, take photos and simply be in a positive, creative space and place,” said Rachel Richardson of ACT. “They also attract developers and activate parts of blighted neighborhoods that need some extra help due to decades of decay.”

“Neighborhood revitalization and economic development follow in the wake of public art.”

The murals at 18th Street and Madison Avenue will be painted on panels that can be moved to preserve the art for the future. The Arts Commission is accepting artist submissions with a design concept of “activism and community.” When finished, the murals will be 8.5 feet high and 14 feet wide with contributions from more than 10 artists.

“We are excited about it,” said Julie Champa, executive director of the UpTown Association. “And it will certainly add to the overall feel of the neighborhood in general.”

The mural will be adjacent to a park, called UpTown Green, that is currently under construction. Both the mural and the park are expected to enhance the neighborhood and entice potential developers.

Toledo City Council plans to vote on a measure to spend $15,000 on murals for the city. The money will match $15,000 offered by Lucas County and will go to ACT, said City Council member Lindsay Webb. The measure was on the agenda April 22 but was held for a vote, Webb said.

“Murals are a great way to capture the heart of a neighborhood and express it visually, Webb said. “It’s a part of developing and identifying and dealing with blight. My hope is that we can roll it out citywide and look at Summit Street or maybe on Secor Road and in East Toledo.”

Point Place is also another neighborhood that has expressed interest in getting a mural.

Maria Rodriguez-Winter of the sofia quintero art and cultural center with a mural in South Toledo. Toledo Free Press photo by Kim Sanchez

“Point Place would love to put up murals about boats and that aspect. I can’t do that if I don’t have the resources,” Webb said.

One percent of the city’s capital budget is designated to the Arts Commission, Webb said, but that money must be used on city-owned property. Council would like to get murals into neighborhoods to improve blight and increase economic development, she said.

Red Velvet Jazz Club

Artist Ahmad Jacobs said people in the Junction neighborhood had a sense there was a “movement” about to happen.

The business owners in the area and the residents were “all happy and full of excitement” to have him paint a mural on the side of the Red Velvet Jazz Club at Junction and Belmont avenues.

“It was really good feedback for me. I felt special,” Jacobs, 45, said. “It brought a lot of people out who didn’t want to come out.”

The building is under new ownership and in the process of opening, according to Jacobs.

Jacobs has painted a number of murals around the city, many of them as a volunteer. He attended the Art Institute of Pittsburgh and taught kindergarten through sixth grade before life got in the way and he said he lost his creative direction.

“I wanted to give up,” he said. “I ended up finding myself again and experiencing art. … I had to get humble. Once I started volunteering, it worked wonders. … My whole thing was to make the city my sketchbook. No one knew I was an artist. I started going around giving businesses a ‘hug.’”

Richardson enlisted Jacobs to paint the mural that he says altered the Junction neighborhood.

“The spirit of the neighborhood completely changed,” he said. “A lot of the businesses had hope when they saw it. And even the people, the winos, they had something positive to talk about. They saw people come into their neighborhood who didn’t live there (who) had passion and drive for their neighborhood. … They needed to step their game up and join in. … So many people I would never talk to came to talk to me and offer suggestion on what they wanted to see.”

The Love Wall

The “Toledo Loves Love” mural at Adams and 13th streets has not only helped revitalize the UpTown area, it has also become a destination spot. Wedding parties, residents and people taking selfies use it as a backdrop.

Toledo Free Press Photo by Kim Sanchez

“It’s a great promoter of Toledo,” said Manos Paschalis, owner of Manos Greek Restaurant, 1701 Adams St., and the owner of the building sporting the “Toledo Loves Love” wall. “Yes, it brings people together and it brings energy to the area and it’s always positive.”

That positive energy can only enhance a neighborhood, Champa said.

“The ‘Toledo Loves Love’ has gotten a lot of attention. … So many people come to that and take pictures. It’s become synonymous with the district and we think that’s really cool.”

Paschalis said the mural is bringing in business; every year, more and more people who come out to see the mural are flocking to area businesses.

A new business is going in at the building the mural adorns. Toledoan Aggie Alt is opening Moxie Live, an art house and pub that will have art on display and offer theater, dance and “anything to do with art,” Alt said.

“I think the mural is such a perfect fit,” she said. “I think it’s going to help us identify with that area. Even people outside the city know it.

“The mural shows artists, ‘Yeah, you can have your work shown here and (the art world) isn’t dead,’ and I think the mural really promotes that.”

‘The Voyage’

In 2013, the United Way of Greater Toledo held its Days of Caring event. The organization set out to “transform a neighborhood, strengthen relationships.” And to do that, they went straight to the Junction neighborhood residents to find out what changes they wanted.

The neighborhood responded. During the event, more than 30 properties were landscaped and mulched, 13 houses painted, five schools beautified, three wheelchair ramps built, two home foundations repaired, two playgrounds improved, one church basement floor installed and two murals painted, plus much more.

Titled “The Voyage,” one of the murals looks like a big blue wave rolling across the side of a building and wrapping around its edges.

It’s painted on the old Munchies building at North Detroit Avenue and Dorr Street, whose sign reads “Munchies. Again. Shrimp. Fish. Chicken.” Behind it sits a Family Food Center and, next door, a dollar store.

Toledo Free Press Photo by Kim Sanchez

“The concept that we wanted to capture is that there is a voyage that needs to take place, for the past, present and future — so (the generations) know who they are and how they are connected to American history with a positive perspective,” said Alicia Smith, a resident and community organizer.

Smith sees the mural as not only a lesson in the voyage of life, but also a testament to relationships: Hundreds of volunteers, sponsors and residents worked together to make the mural and Days of Caring a reality.

“The most important thing is connection. There’s strength in connection; there’s power behind connection. … When you allow the community to have a voice you stop prescribing what you think they need and they start prescribing what they need,” Smith said.

United Way shifted to a grassroots way of interacting with the community about five years ago, said Emily Avery, director of community engagement at United Way of Greater Toledo. The organization listened to the residents at Days of Caring, acted and got great feedback, she said.

“We heard a lot from the neighborhood — it gave people hope again — just to see how much community support that they had,” Avery said. “It’s amazing what a little paint can do. We heard from people that it just kind of spread joy through the neighborhood.”

The Junction neighborhood is not done with its revitalization plan. They recently cleared sidewalks, organized a voter registration drive and will continue to landscape and paint. The journey is not over, Smith said.

“We’re going to continue to do murals. The voyage doesn’t stop,” she said. “The minute you dock the boat, you have to continue.”

Broadway Street

Gordon Ricketts was influenced by the Latino art of his San Diego childhood. As art professor and director of the Arts Village at Bowling Green State University, he wanted to bring the Latino art style to Toledo. To do so, he enlisted his friend Mario Torero.

Torero, an artist born in Peru, helped paint 60 colorful murals on the concrete support piers for the San Diego-Coronado Bridge and I-5, called Chicano Park in San Diego’s Barrio Logan neighborhood.

Ricketts brought Torero to Toledo about five years ago for the first of several murals, two on the underpass of I-75 on Broadway Street. Passersby can see the murals are large and Hispanic in style, much like the murals at Chicano Park.

“Broadway made sense because of the bridge,” Ricketts said. “We got permission from ODOT (Ohio Department of Transportation) and the mayor’s office and business leaders in the neighborhood. It was a pretty involved project.”

Students from BGSU and residents helped Torero paint the murals that stretch from the I-75 underpass to the Green Lantern at 509 Broadway St., Ricketts said.

Since the murals have graced the neighborhood, leaders said they no longer see the graffiti or prostitution they once did along Broadway Street. So far, none of the murals have been vandalized and a survey of the neighborhood showed that residents like the artwork and the gardens.

Maria Rodriguez-Winter, interim director of the Sofia Quintero Art and Cultural Center at 1225 Broadway St., said the murals have had a transformative effect on the neighborhood, which in the past was very depressing with boarded-up buildings and absentee landlords. The decline started about 20 years ago, said Rodriguez-Winter, who has been involved in the neighborhood for the past 40 years.

About 10 years ago, things started to change and now every day she sees a synergy at work in the neighborhood, she said. Residents now have a sense of pride and respect for the neighborhood. The murals are a big part of that.

“We love [the murals],” she said. “We feel that they really add a lot of beauty to the neighborhood and it engages people. When Mario comes and when Gordon comes into the area with the students, they are engaging the community.

“It’s just a process of having the people of the neighborhood be involved in the creative aspect of it. We’ve gotten so much positive feedback that some of the businesses want to have their walls painted.”

This year will be the fifth year Torero has come to Toledo to paint. The artist will be in the Old South End neighborhood June 17-18, Ricketts said.

Dozens gather for UpTown Spring Cleanup

Jonie McIntire summed up why most of the volunteers came out on a recent Saturday morning to pick up trash.

“It’s a beautiful day and I like Toledo,” McIntire said as she stood amid debris littered across a grassy vacant lot on 15th Street. The mother and Downtown health care worker came out to support the UpTown neighborhood in its Spring Cleanup day April 12.

“If you look in these bushes, there’s a full life in there,” McIntire said, referring to a bag full of clothing and alcohol containers she discovered under a nearby bush. The Old West End resident was shocked at how much trash she found in the UpTown neighborhood. Yet she saw the possibilities.

“Can’t you see it?” McIntire said, looking at the vacant lot as her two children, ages 11 and 13, picked nearby. “You could have a metropark or a garden or something.”

McIntire was among dozens of students, residents and inmates who picked up trash in vacant lots, along street corners and behind bushes as part of the UpTown neighborhood’s twice annual cleanup. The effort has been ongoing for the past 10 years, said Julie Champa, executive director of the UpTown Association.

“We believe a nice clean neighborhood makes everybody happy and deters crime,” Champa said. “It’s for the common good to improve the condition of the neighborhood. … We feel that a nice clean vibrant neighborhood benefits [all of us].”

The weather cooperated Saturday morning with blue skies and temperatures that reached into the 60s. Spring had arrived and winter had left a lot of trash in its wake for volunteers to pick up.

The parking lot at The Toledo Club, 235 14th St., served as event headquarters where volunteers signed up and got their trash bags and hand grabbers. The Toledo Club was “heavily invested” in the event and donated lunch, Champa said. The UpTown Association donated all supplies, she said.

Marty Lahey, treasurer of Uptown Association and owner of Manhattan’s Restaurant on Adams Street, said he planned to offer a lunch of pulled pork and baked beans to those who showed up at noon after the event.

Twenty-four people in teams of two had signed up to volunteer by 9 a.m. and Russ Wozniak, a board member of the UpTown Association, was confident organizers would see 50 volunteers, the typical total for years past.

Volunteers included residents from the Hillcrest Apartments, students from Mercy College, members from the Cherry Street Mission and also people serving in a penitentiary rehabilitation program called OhioLINK.

“We work with OhioLINK … we work with them and their clients and they provide clean up service through UpTown clean team…. it shows you how we all come together for the common good,” Champa said. “That partnership has been amazing and they don’t charge for their business. It’s a great model and they … don’t want to pass on additional costs and it’s a free service.”

Volunteer and architect Paul Sullivan has worked in Downtown for most of his life. He called the area including Downtown and UpTown “everybody’s yard.”

“I firmly believe we have to take care of Downtown and Downtown is Toledo’s greatest neighborhood,” Sullivan said. “We have to take care of our yard.”

Rachel Richardson of Art Corner Toledo, who works with artists and activists, first fell in love with the UpTown neighborhood in 2006 because of the art show Artomatic419!

“I love UpTown,” Richardson said. “Most of my murals are in UpTown.”

Richardson invited her friends to the event via Facebook and Kelly Jobe decided to accept. She worked in a vacant lot off Madison and 14th Streets, bending and grabbing bits of debris.

“I work in Toledo,” said Jobe, who lives in Ida and brought her son to the event. “I know it’s a good cause.”

Julie Walker, who was bent over clearing bushes, said she worked for Toledo Metro Federal Credit Union and decided to volunteer to show her support.

“Vice president of Lending Michael Plath is on the board of the UpTown Association and I decided to come out and get things cleaned up,” Walker said. “There’s so much stuff from this crazy winter.”

This entry was posted
on Sunday, April 13th, 2014 at 3:14 am and is filed under Community.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

COMMUNITY

Mural spreads joy, helps reconnect local family

Drinking hot chocolate and eating his chocolate chip cookie, Juleeon Carter appeared like any ordinary boy of Toledo sitting in a coffee shop on a wet, wintery Friday afternoon, just after school let out.

But then he looked outside the plate glass window, across Collingwood Boulevard, at the image of his own face, blown up 22 feet high in vinyl and pinned to the side of a brick building on West Delaware Avenue.

“My bus driver told me this morning she almost cried when she saw the picture,” Juleeon said Dec. 20 as he talked about how his life has changed because of his likeness on the side of a building.

Eleven-year-old Juleeon Carter, right, with photographer Robin Charney in front of a Downtown mural featuring a photo of Juleeon taken by Charney. Since the mural went up in October, it’s turned heads, prompted smiles and been featured on CNN. Juleeon’s father, whom he hadn’t seen in years, even reached out and reconnected with his son after seeing the mural. Toledo Free Press Photo by Kim Sanchez.

The mural featuring Juleeon’s smiling, joyous face, his white teeth shining, his eyes crinkled, has been a nearly three-year project in the making, impacting Juleeon’s life in profound ways and affecting those around him who worked hard to spread his joy to the world.

The mural recently made national headlines when Emily Rippe of ProMedica, a sponsor of the mural, submitted a picture of Juleeon and his family in front of the mural to a CNN Instagram contest, #CNNMuralStories.

“We couldn’t believe it when this image was one of nine murals chosen to be featured on CNN.com from around the world,” said Robin Charney, the photographer who took the picture of Juleeon and who was instrumental in bringing the mural to fruition. “Our Juleeon, featured right up there alongside murals from Italy, Bangladesh, Sweden and New York City.”

“Everyone involved knew this mural would make an impact on the local community, but we had no idea it was going to reach a global audience as well,” Charney said. “The feeling I have is hard to describe. I’m happy for Juleeon and his family, I’m happy for the attention this garners for all the people who work pretty hard to make Toledo a good place to live, but I’m not surprised. … I’ve always felt that this was a special photo, of a special kid.”

Looking at his image from Black Kite coffee shop, Juleeon shrugged, a small smile tugging his lips. He nodded when asked if he thought it was neat and cool and whether he felt like a famous person now: His bus driver nearly crying, his school taking a field trip to see it and — most astounding of all — his father calling after years of absence.

Juleeon said in between bites of cookie that he hadn’t talked to his dad in several years. His father drove by the mural, saw his son and called Juleeon’s mom. The father and son were soon eating out at a local restaurant.

Juleeon says he tried to get on Twitter to find out what people were saying about the mural, but at 11, he’s not old enough. He said he never expected this level of attention.

Juleeon Carter, left, and photographer Robin Charney speak to Robert Scott, a crossing guard at West Delaware Avenue and Collingwood Boulevard, about a mural featuring a photo of Juleeon taken by Charney. Toledo Free Press Photo by Kim Sanchez

“Is that you?” Robert Scott, a crossing guard at West Delaware Avenue and Collingwood Boulevard, said to Juleeon, after noticing the mural. “Good job. Good job.”

“He just looks so happy,” Scott said of the mural. “Bring joy, bring joy.”

Scott said he’s witnessed several people walk up to the mural and take their picture in front of it.

Charney, the photographer, told Scott she met Juleeon a few years ago.

“He was so happy I took a picture of him,” she said.

Since 2009, Charney had been attending the picnic hosted each Saturday by Food for Thought at the corner of Adams and Michigan streets Downtown.

“I never intended to spend most Saturdays for five years photographing people who, for the most part, live in extreme poverty, but that’s what I’ve been doing,” Charney said. “Photographing them and then returning their photos to them the following week.”

Juleeon was pestering Charney one Saturday back in 2011. Juleeon wanted his picture taken during the weekly picnic then held on the grounds of the Toledo-Lucas County Main Library. He was 8 then.

“When I printed the picture of Juleeon, I could not help but smile every time I looked at it because he radiated such an intrinsic joy, one that can only come from a child,” Charney said. “This photo was not about hunger or despair; it was about the hope and joy that only can come through connection with another human being.”

The following Saturday Charney tracked down Juleeon and his family at the same location to give them a copy of the picture.

“I gave him and his mom the picture and I said: ‘Juleeon…this kind of joy needs to be shared. … I don’t know how or when, but I think we should put this picture of you up on a wall because it just makes people feel good,’” Charney said. “He and his mom agreed.”

Charney did not, however, take the picture with the intent of creating a mural.

“I’ve photographed a thousand people over the last five years, and never with the intent of showing them to anyone except the person I’ve photographed, but I knew when I saw his face, this was different.”

Charney kept a copy of the picture in her purse for a year as she showed it to different people, including graphic designers, fellow photographers and community members. She contacted The Arts Commission, but said nothing really happened until she met with Rachel Richardson of Art Corner Toledo, who said, “Let’s get it up,” Charney said.

“I’m thrilled that it finally came together because it was a few years in the making,” Richardson said.

The project met with some obstacles, including financial backing, wall availability and people just plain changing their minds, Charney said.

“We’d be almost there, and a building owner would change their mind,” she said. “It was funny because this was a very simple picture, there was no hidden agenda, there was no money to be made, it was just about joy – that was it.”

People were confused about the meaning of the photo, she said. They wanted words, but Charney felt that words would be “preachy.” She wanted to let photograph stand on its own, leaving it up to interpretation.

The project was also put on hold for several months while Charney battled breast cancer. After regaining her health, she worked on the Witness to Hunger program sponsored by ProMedica, where she reconnected with Juleeon and his family.

The program is an exhibition of photographs taken by individuals from Northwest Ohio who struggle to feed their families. ProMedica felt the mural of Juleeon would be a nice extension of that project, said ProMedica communications director Stephanie Cihon.

“It’s really important for us to be a part of the community and give back to the community and this was one way we could do that,” Cihon said.

With financing from ProMedica and Maumee-based CGS Imaging, which transferred the image to vinyl, along with business owner Paul Walker, who donated a wall of his building, the mural was finally put up in October.

“We used to get a lot of graffiti put on the walls,” said Walker, who owns Walker & Sons Auto, 439 W. Delaware Ave. “[The mural] is more appealing. It keeps down the graffiti. … Whoever the young man is, he just looks like us. I thought it was kind of neat.”

Charney felt the impact of the mural when it was just a photo she carried in her purse. The picture made her feel happy and now the mural will make lots of people happy, she said.

“I’m just happy for Juleeon, that people can see him,” she said. “It was what I felt. It was something inside of me. I just felt so happy [to see the photo]. It just made me feel good.”

“I love it,” said Black Kite barista Renee Sarra, who has worked a year and a half at the coffee shop that sits across the street from the mural. “The first day [the mural] was put up, I looked out that window and smiled.”

Newsmakers 2013: A year in review

There’s something about the minutes ticking down on New Year’s Eve, heralding the start of another calendar year, that prompts reflection.

Anyone on social media probably found their Dec. 31 feeds full of year-in-review posts as friends looked back on 2013’s graduations, weddings, babies, new jobs and other personal milestones while also looking ahead with hope and well-wishes for 2014.

At the end of each year, Toledo Free Press editors also look back on some of the year’s biggest news stories.

Perhaps the biggest newsmaker of the year was also the smallest. Baby Elaina Steinfurth dominated local headlines for months, even drawing national attention, as law enforcement officers joined by hundreds of volunteers spent months searching for the East Toledo toddler reported missing in June. When her remains were discovered in the rafters of a detached garage in September, the community’s heart collectively broke. In December, her mother and mother’s ex-boyfriend pleaded guilty to murder and began serving life sentences.

Brian Hoeflinger was another young life cut short too soon. The 18-year-old honor student was killed in a drunken driving accident on Feb. 2. His parents, Brian and Cindy Hoeflinger, almost immediately embarked on a campaign to raise awareness of underage drinking. His father has written a book and the couple started an organization, Brian Matters, hoping to prevent more accidents like the one that cost their son his life.

Yet more heartache came in March as 20-year-old Kaitlin Gerber was shot and killed by ex-boyfriend Jashua Perz, one of the city’s 31 homicides of 2013 and one that raised awareness of how domestic violence protection orders can fall short.

But it wasn’t all heartbreak.

Many of our newsmakers are people who generate that certain buzz. Who have that spark, that vision, that infectious energy or quiet strength that inspires those around them to new heights.

Collins, a Toledo City Councilman and retired Toledo police officer, surprised many people when he jumped ahead of Councilman Joe McNamara and Lucas County Auditor Anita Lopez to nab the second spot in the mayoral primary behind incumbent Mayor Mike Bell. He surprised even more when he defeated Bell by a wide margin in the general election.

Durant hit the ground running after being named interim superintendent of Toledo Public Schools (TPS) in April. A TPS graduate and veteran TPS teacher and administrator, his energy, drive and enthusiasm immediately set a more positive tone for the district. Many credit him with sparking enough confidence in voters to finally pass a levy for TPS. In December, he was rewarded with a four-year contract extension.

Melden has been leading with a creative vision since taking the helm of local nonprofit Food for Thought in 2011. Events like Jam City and Food Fight 419 generated new excitement and awareness as well as thousands of dollars toward helping Toledo’s food-insecure families. Even Melden’s preferred title — chief thought officer instead of executive director — reflects his outside-the-box thinking. In the past year, the organization has nearly doubled its mobile sites and established partnerships with Glass Wear, Actual Coffee and the Toledo Farmers’ Market.

Lucas also had a big year. In January, the local entrepreneur launched education startup Classana and in September, organized the second annual sold-out TEDxToledo.

Nationally-renowned portrait artist Adams has been quietly making a name for herself in the art world. The work she creates in her Huron Street studio has been displayed at the Toledo Museum of Art and Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery. Her latest was recently installed at the Ohio Statehouse.

Small-business owner Sandy Spang burst onto the political scene in a big way, earning a spot on Toledo City Council after placing third in both the primary and general election.

Former Mayor Bell’s trip to Germany in April and the news that a trio of local investors was interested in privatizing operation of the area’s two airports were met with both applause and derision.

Lexi Staples, executive director of the Pride of Toledo Foundation, has helped grow Toledo Pride from 2,500 attendees in 2010 to upwards of 13,000 this summer. She also helped spearhead the opening of Pride Center 419, a community center geared toward the needs of Toledo’s LGBT community.

The War of 1812 bicentennial led to a series of historical events, including a full-scale re-enactment of the Battle of Lake Erie in September.

In the sports realm, the Mud Hens unveiled plans for a multimillion-dollar Downtown renovation project around Fifth Third Field and announced Larry Parrish would return as manager. The announcement that Toledo native Jamie Farr was stepping down from hosting the annual LPGA tournament that has borne his name since 1984 marked the end of an era. Marathon Petroleum took over as title sponsor. Central Catholic’s star quarterback DeShone Kizer announced he will head to Notre Dame this fall, a decision he and his family made for both athletic and academic reasons.

Many neighborhoods gained bright splashes of color as the Organization of Latino Artists and Toledo Free Press contributor Rachel Richardson of Art Corner Toledo helped organize several new murals now dotting the South End and Downtown. Arts lovers and historians alike smiled as the long-shuttered Ohio Theatre reopened.

Other notable events included the last live harness race at Toledo’s Raceway Park, a sinkhole that swallowed a car and Cedar Point’s newest roller coaster GateKeeper, built by Ohio companies.

Toledo Free Press also covered many of the community’s “unsung” newsmakers, among them Craig Schuele, who is raising six adopted kids; Mark Greenblatt, who lost 150 pounds during his weight-loss journey; and all the servicemen and women featured in our annual Fourth of July military yearbook.

Another could be Toledo Free Press columnist Jeremy Baumhower, who had a busy year brainstorming various charity events, including Team 8, a kids’ race in honor of the Boston Marathon bombing victims, and This is Me, a fundraiser for Girls on the Run of Northwest Ohio featuring portraits of local women sans makeup.

Just last month, Toledo celebrated the 100th anniversary of the slogan “You Will Do Better in Toledo.” We agree. For the fifth year in a row, Toledo Free Press was named best weekly newspaper in its 75,000-plus circulation class by the Ohio chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, an honor we aim to defend as best we can moving forward.

Here’s to a new year. Thank you for joining us in 2013, and we look forward to seeing what 2014 has in store.

Richardson: Number of culturemakers in Toledo is growing

“Life in the circus ain’t easy. But, the folks on the outside don’t know. When the tent goes up and the tent comes down, and all that they see is the show.”

— Ani DiFranco

Living in the Old West End and being involved with the art and culture that often bring people from outside the Downtown area into the parts of town where I (and a large number of artists and activists) live and work, I very often find these lyrics from Ani DiFranco’s song “Freakshow” comforting. For me, it’s completely common to be scampering around the Warehouse District or UpTown during one of the Arts Commission’s Art Walks, setting up a table, playing music or riding in a Glass City Pedicab. I’m thrilled but not at all surprised to see stilt walkers or breakdancers in the middle of an intersection stopping traffic.

I’m conscious that this isn’t normal activity for the occasional patron and that they aren’t accustomed to this spectacle. The visitor’s only job here is to enjoy what is being shown to them, but those of us behind the scenes have a larger role to play. Event planners from every industry understand what I mean when I say that the week leading up to a fundraiser or performance has the coordinators running in several directions at once, seeking a stressful balance between what is important at the last hour and what may just need to work itself out, so that the “show” comes off looking effortless and solid.

We have a stellar group of people in the UpTown/Downtown/Warehouse District area who are making the entertainment for an evergrowing number of participants from all over the city. The number of culture makers is ever growing. And even better, some of them are recent Toledo transplants!

My favorite — a literal group of circus performers has come to town within the past two years and is even giving some of us who thought we’d seen it all a fresh dose of culture. Bird’s Eye View Circus Space has found its home in the Collingwood Arts Center and is brought to us by partners in life as well as art, Erin Garber-Pearson and Erik Bang. Garber-Pearson, a visual artist whose installations open viewers’ eyes to local and global issues simultaneously, can demonstrate aerial silk with such grace that your mouth hangs open and your body makes chills. And Bang, a bicycle aficionado/repairman with Toledo Bikes!, eats fire, walks on stilts and contorts his body in ways I had only seen on television before their 3 Penny Circus performance in May. The talent is immense and is matched only by their enthusiasm and willingness to try something new in a city that is defined by pure culture.

Not to mention the acts that came in from out of town for the 3 Penny Circus and had a sold-out theater full of people chanting their names in show of love and appreciation. I’m still thinking about the performance and it happened months ago. And now, Bird’s Eye View Circus Space is offering classes in fitness and unique circus skills to amateur Toledoans. I recently participated in a class teaching skills in aerial silk routines. It was not only extremely fun but very difficult and my body feels stronger for experiencing that hour and a half of exercise. Classes in acro-yoga, aerial hoops and an open gym are also offered. I encourage everyone to look into this opportunity as I promise you that you have never seen or done anything like it.

The location is half the experience. To be surrounded by the history of the Collingwood Arts Center while contemporary and off-the-beaten-path art is shared by wonderfully patient and competent instructors creates a sense of cultural evolution. I’m looking forward to the next 3 Penny Circus and know to look for Garber-Pearson and Bang and their local cast at most art events. They are the ones on stilts, bringing smiles to the faces in their wake.

What about you? Have you ever thought that one of your talents was just a little too weird and that you might never find a venue to express it? As progress and art have looked more and more alike in Toledo during the first half of the 2010s, I’m willing to bet that whatever you are good at is getting less and less weird. An audience awaits.

This entry was posted
on Tuesday, October 8th, 2013 at 4:05 pm and is filed under ACT, Star.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

FUNDRAISER

Third Toledo SOUP set for Sept. 8

The “third helping” of crowd-sourced, microgrant dinner series Toledo SOUP will feature presenters trying to win support for projects as wide-ranging as refurbishing an Old West End basketball court to rescuing women from the sex trade. The event is set for 5-9 p.m. Sept. 8 at Toledo School for the Arts (TSA), 333 14th St. Admission is $5 for adults and $1 for children 12 and younger.

Five finalists will present their projects while attendees eat dinner and then attendees vote on a winner. The winning project is awarded the total admission collected, typically between $500 and $1,000, organizers said.

“There’s a nice mixture of different types of proposals,” said Emily Rippe, one of the event’s organizers. “I’m really looking forward to hearing from some of these presenters. There should be some really interesting ones — some I’ve never heard of before and some I’m very familiar with.”

The meal will include three choices of soup, including one vegan option. Farmers market salad and bread will also be served.

New this year, a free art fair and bake sale will be held prior to Toledo SOUP, from noon to 5 p.m. at TSA. The event was organized by Maxwell Austin, owner of Glass City Pedicabs and winner of the first Toledo SOUP in 2012.

“I was trying to think of a way to bring more people through the door. The more people who come, the more money the recipient is going to receive,” Austin said. “Hopefully when the art event is done at 5 p.m., everyone will go right into Toledo SOUP.”

Proceeds from the bake sale will go toward the Toledo SOUP recipient. Free-will donations will also be accepted for TSA as thanks for the use of the space, Austin said.

Austin, who used his winnings from the first Toledo SOUP to pay for pedicab insurance, said he believes in the mission of Toledo SOUP.

“This is your city. You have a civic duty to yourself and your neighbors to try to make Toledo an awesome place. For $5 you get to help Toledo be something greater,” Austin said. “There’s a whole lot of people with a lot of good energy trying to push Toledo into a good place. Toledo’s done a lot of good things for me and all I can do is try to do some good things back for it.

Organizers hope the third Toledo SOUP will be the biggest yet.

“There’s a lot more interest in this one than there was for the second one, so that’s encouraging,” Rippe said. “We just kind of took a break so we could all refresh and really do it right. We’re just really excited. It’s been about a year since this was put on. We want it to be the best ever.”

This entry was posted
on Wednesday, September 4th, 2013 at 3:49 pm and is filed under Community.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

ACT

Richardson: Lead, follow, or get out of Toledo’s way

I keep reading the words, “amid a groundswell of public support” in local newspaper articles and editorials about issues I care about. This phrase does my little activist heart such good and my first thought is always “Of course! Public support is what Toledo does best.”

In these same articles, however, newspapers also report on opposition to progress on these issues. The opposition seems to always come in the form of one “leader” who insists on placing obstacles in the path everyone else seems to be following toward an important, albeit complex, goal.

I have a little bit of an ant situation in my apartment. Referencing what I know about nature-to-human metaphors, these ants represent a bug army’s ability to travel over, around, under and through any log or acorn in the way to get what they want from the picnic … or my kitchen, as the case may be. My hope here is that the ants in their headquarters downstairs on the patio are actually being deterred when their scouts come up to find the mint leaves and garlic cloves I have placed to repel them.

The same cannot be said for their human activist counterparts. We will not be deterred by vague statements about “keeping an open mind” in the same sentence peppered with reasons why proposals for crucial changes continue to be rejected.

Little does the opposition know that the community rallies that much stronger when it hears that someone thinks it can’t or won’t do something. Or maybe they do know, considering one particular issue we have been remind ing them of pretty regularly for five years.

With much gratitude to members of Toledo City Council and one outstandingly courageous judge, local leaders have taken a very public stance in favor of the creation of a dedicated domestic violence docket in Toledo Municipal Court. You may know a little bit about domestic violence in Toledo; you may know nothing. I think you would still be in favor of creating this dedicated docket. That’s how straightforward a step it is to improving the community’s response to domestic violence and changing the fact that women are being murdered on a monthly basis by their intimate partners.

On a very personal note, this little ant actually was deterred on this issue by lack of real progress at a point in 2011, when I resigned from the victim advocacy and criminal justice world to turn my focus to art and culture. One really nice thing about being an independent advocate, though, is that you can independently advocate for whatever needs advocated at the time. So, this recent surge in activism at the system level swung me all the way back into that world and I couldn’t be more excited.

I have absolutely no doubt that Toledo Municipal Court will implement this dedicated docket. It is just a matter of time and a change in leadership.

I got an email from a trusted friend the other day letting me know that I should watch another local “leader” who feels that “all of these murals and yarnbombs are a waste of time and the young urbanites should concentrate on more important things.” Granted, murals and yarnbombs are not directly putting food into the mouths of hungry Toledoans. But, they are putting artists and the creative community to work, which isn’t that far off. And they exist “amid a groundswell of public support.” They are making Toledo a pleasant place to live.

Public art makes people happy! Why on earth would a “leader” try to discourage his or her neighbors and fellow Toledoans from being happy and working to make us happier? Someone has to be responsible for the warm fuzzies around here! We have a local radio station that plays only feel-good favorites! We want to feel good! Happy Toledoans are motivated and productive Toledoans. A true leader would cultivate that.

I keep using the word “leader” here. And the quotation marks are not meant to be snarky.

But, I do feel the need to have a logomachy about whether a true leader makes decisions that are so opposite the needs and wants of his or her community.

This entry was posted
on Thursday, May 16th, 2013 at 1:27 pm and is filed under ACT, Opinion.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

ACT

Richardson: Creative revolutionaries

Artists have been responsible for creating the cultural aesthetic of civilizations since the beginning of time. The reason we know stories of evolution of societies is because creative members of populations were compelled to scratch them on walls or carve them out of stones or build them with a tendency to a certain kind of design or paint them using the natural materials available to them at the time.

Toledo has an abundance of decaying buildings and structures. We have long stretches of streets with empty houses and broken windows. This moment in Toledo’s evolution is asking that we put paintings on these buildings as if they were walls in our homes. The next step in the lives of these neighborhoods is beautification.

When we look back at Toledo in 2012, we will begin to see an overt, public and very specific aesthetic completely created by local artists and our current inspirations and resources. From the color scheme of the Lucas County Land Bank boarded-up building paintings on Monroe Street to logo designs for local businesses the artists are creating what Toledo looks like: our visual culture. I think it’s safe to say that Toledo is undergoing a creative revolution. Frankly, the whole world is.

If our only measure were the number of murals, yarnbombs, and other street art being installed and documented on every continent and shared in photographs and on social media, one would think that artists have taken it upon themselves to bring every depressed city a little joy by adding color and beauty to blighted neighborhoods and all the positive rippling that follows. Which, of course, we have. Toledo’s visual artists, musicians, performers and writers have been at this for decades, not caring whether anyone ever paid attention.

We were going to and will continue to make art simply because we are artists and we have no choice. We’ve multiplied in number and energy levels in the past decade and have been very prolific but, an important shift has taken place now. The next wave of the boom.

Artists are starting to get real support from those members of the community who would not necessarily consider themselves directly connected to art but who recognize its importance to the revitalization of the city. They see what they are able to do from their positions to ground the artists and help them build foundations as they gain traction and begin to make real change. They are visionaries, connectors, and innovators. Bob Krompak is a visionary.

A compassionate career do-gooder and Toledo lover, Krompak sees only potential and opportunity in the empty storefronts and faded signs from his post at NeighborWorks Toledo Region. In those vacancies, Krompak knows that art will fit and drive progress and has put wheels in motion to allow culture and art to be used as real tools for change.

Krompak is the economic development specialist at NeighborWorks but he’s a social worker at heart who gets giddy when he sees new yarnbombs in the Birmingham neighborhood in East Toledo. He sees a city he has worked at for 30 years coming to life and is motivated to keep working to empower a new crop of professionals and try new things. The city is very lucky to have him. And also connectors like Candice Harrison, the Community Hub Director at Scott High School.

Harrison has built a team around her to implement the mission of community Hubs and is receptive to all things creative. From free GED classes to knitting classes to relationship workshops to partnerships with the Toledo Museum of Art. Harrison is committed to reaching out to the local community and knows in order to do that, she must speak the language of incorporating culture.

Innovators can be found nearby in industries that allow for personal expression. They help create the way we look as Toledoans in 2012. With a new consciousness, comes an earthy angle which sends branches of art into a leap of creativity that has a timing perfect for this moment and this age. Toledo has a strong local advocate, activist, and entrepreneur in Megan Yasu who has founded and maintains The Kitchen Salon, a business and educational resource in the Natural Hair Movement. Her answer to a creative call to provide support to the evolution of culture.

As Toledoans, we have a natural disposition toward art and activism. Every single one of us has a role in this revolution.

This entry was posted
on Tuesday, December 4th, 2012 at 2:15 pm and is filed under ACT, Star.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Doors open 7 p.m. Sept. 28 at the Toledo Museum of Art (TMA) Glass Pavilion. The free event features a cash bar and light snacks.

“[PechaKucha is] used for artists, designers, people that are advocating for anything and everything,” said event organizer Kimberly Adams.

PechaKucha began in Tokyo in 2003 as a way for young designers to share their ideas.

“They started it for architects, because the architects tended to be a little long-winded when they were presenting their designs so they kind of shortened that format for them,” Adams said. Now the nights occur in more than 500 cities all over the world and Tokyo itself has had about 100 PechaKucha Nights.

Adams, founder of Tart Projects, an artists’ platform, also organized Toledo’s first PechaKucha Night, which took place March 31 at Manhattan’s and the second, which was June 12 at the Toledo-Lucas County Main Library. She recently moved back to Ohio after living in Tampa, Fla., where she first observed PechaKucha.

“I’d been to a couple in Tampa and they were really well put-together so I just thought it’d be great to happen here,” Adams said.

More than 100 people attended the last event. “It was really well-received. A lot of people were like, ‘Let us know when the next one is. We’ll be there,’” Adams said.

“This time, we focused on arts and nonprofits so what’s going on in the area, just to inform the public what’s going on,” she added.

A representative from TMA’s Circle 2445 group, which tries to engage young adults with the museum, reached out to help with the event and offer space, Adams said, adding she is excited about the “really cool venue.”

Organizing PechaKucha is getting easier, she said.

“The more [people] see it, they’re like, ‘I can totally do this. I’ll present at the next one,’” Adams said. “A lot of people have hesitation about public speaking. … You just don’t have time to worry about it. You just get up there and do your thing and before you know it, it’s over.”

Rachel Richardson, Art Corner Toledo founder, was one of the hesitant.

“I went to the first two and I realized what a positive event it was,” she said. “I got over myself.”

The rapid-fire format excites Richardson.

“I personally have a short attention span, so the fact that I know the person is going to touch on the most interesting stuff makes me sit still and listen,” she said.

Richardson said she plans to present on the birth and evolution of Art Corner Toledo, a group that nurtures artists and activists.

Ken Leslie, founder of 1Matters, an advocacy group for the homeless, will also present. The format doesn’t intimidate Leslie.

“I’m not afraid at all. I relish the opportunity to share the bigger picture of the work that we’re doing,” he said. He said he will focus on collaborative efforts of the community and misconceptions about the homeless.

He expects his presentation to be humorous but also touching.

Leslie also said he is looking forward to Richardson’s presentation.

“She is one of those unsung heroes that’s doing a lot to change the face, the physical face of our community,” he said.

Adams will present in addition to Dustin Hostetler of Circle 2445, Amber LeFever of LeSo Gallery, Bradley Scherzer of Toledo on the Map, Sadi Starmack and Jamie Baird of UGIVE.ORG, Nicole Tarver of The One Story Project, glass artist Brien Strancar and architect Paul Sullivan.

After September’s event, the next PechaKucha night is set for January. Another sponsor is needed for September. For more information, visit pecha-kucha.org/night/toledo.

This entry was posted
on Saturday, September 22nd, 2012 at 1:15 am and is filed under Arts and Life.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.